I have long observed that there is no scorn like a Democrat's scorn. Generally speaking, they can be almost vicious in their attacks on anyone or anything that runs counter to their beliefs. A quick review of posts to this story and any other like story will confirm what I am talking about.

Not another unelected and unaccountable dude to go along with the likes of Sundstrom and Schultz who seem hellbent on pushing their vision of Grand Rapids down our collective throats. I would like to see some backbone on the part of our elected officials in setting the tone for our city rather than just rubber stamping what these unelected and unaccountable people throw before them.

I don't know Rick, but I think your business skill and knowledge is a bit limited compared to the likes of Romney. The guy graduated top of his class at BYU and went on to Harvard and earned both a law degree and an MBA at the same time. He then went on to run highly successful business ventures. What do you have to show for yourself?

With all the brewing adventures around town and the area, it is beginning to look like the early 1900s -- before prohibition not only ruined local breweries but brought on the our beloved federal income tax as the means to offset the loss of tax revenue from the sale of booze.

I thought Roy's Mom's day dinner was something he had been doing for years--long before declaring himself a Democrat in order to run for State office. In those days, people gave because they supported Roy's position on issues or merely saw him as a practical and well-meaning public official. So what has changed? Roy is no ideologue and never was one.

First the Republicans located their Kent County headquarters on the West Side and now Roy Schmidt becomes a Republican. Can the West Side take anymore of this crap?

I have long observed that Democrats, in general, are mean-spirited almost to the point of being vicious. I am not surprised that Roy Schmidt is being called everything in the book. There is no scorn like that of a Democrat. To confirm my point, just look at the comments that have been posted on the many news articles that have appeared in the last few days.

Something tells me that this effort should wait until the Asian carp threat is put to bed. Otherwise, look to a place like Valencia, Spain where they went much further and rerouted the whole river around their town opening up a river bed that is used for all kinds of recreational activites. By taking out the dam there would be a huge area of land that could be used for biking paths, parks, etc. We could also replace those ugly flood walls with something more natural and ascetic.

The amount of money needed to fund a police department and a fire department is a reflection of the kind of city they are serving. In cities where crime rates are low the cost of having a police department will be less. What can a city do to lower its crime rate and thus lower the cost of maintaining it police force? For one thing, cease being a mecca for the downtrodden, the homeless, the illiterate, and the unsustainables (people unable to survive without assistance from others). The Grand Rapids police spend an awful lot of time dealing with people hell bent on causing mayhem. Also, a day doesn't go by that a fire truck isn't called to the Heartside area to deal with a homeless issue. The City can not be all things to all people. At some point it must make hard decisions. Asking people who actually pay property and income taxes to fund police and fire departments that spend a great deal of its resources dealing with those who pay little or no taxes is getting old.

As soon as I saw that the article was based on work done by Bridge Magazine, I knew the likely outcome or thrust of the article. As usual, a boatload of statistics were sorted through in order to obtain the desired "facts" that would support a predetermined opinion. MLive would do well to distance itself from this organization as one of its steady contributors.

Unfortunately, having a degree is often just an admission ticket to get inside the job arena. Once inside the arena, finding a job or a seat is difficult. I hate to see the misuse of statistics to bolster the notion that everyone needs to go to college in order to obtain a desirable job. Europe is full of college graduates who can neither find a job or even obtain a work visa to work in the US. Europe made the mistake of overly subsidizing the cost of a college degree thus creating a whole bunch of educated unemployed young people. You see the USA going down that path. We have already seen many college graduates stuck with student loans that can't be paid back because there are inadequate jobs out there. Student loan and admission practices have become so loose that many young people are going to college just to live off the loans until better times arrive. Many attend community colleges which are beginning to feel more like high schools than college. The whole thing has become a mess.

Get over it. Forget outdoors also. I recently sat at an outdoor cafe in Europe and had to endure some dude smoking a big cigar for what seemed like forever--it was awful. Whew, I had forgotten how much those things stink.

Having said that, this whole controversy is jaded as smoking is allowed in casinos. If secondhand smoke is as bad as it is represented, then our lawmakers are guilty of negligence in allowing the practice in casinos--including Indian ones. Since extending the smoking ban to include casinos will never happen, there needs to be a provision for bars to allow smoking with a permit and a set of guidelines. Some of the rules could include state of the art ventilation systems, children under the age of 21 not permitted at any time, limit employee hours to minimize their exposure, clearly post that the place allows smoking.

Tim
I couldn't get past the headline. You are dead wrong. Since when did it become the responsibility of the State of Michigan to maintain the streets of Grand Rapids? Do you realize that millions of tax dollars collected by the City of Grand Rapids have been pissed away on social or feel good programs, outrageous non-police/fire pension and employee benefit programs, and any number of other endeavors including having their own cable tv station? Get real Tim.